'Doubly Snake Bit' NY Law Firm Must Pay 2nd Suspended Ex-Partner Full Agreed Buyout Amount
A New York law firm contesting its contractual duty to pay an agreed $750,000 buyout to a partner who was suspended from practice the day after the June 6, 2001, deal was struck was “doubly snake-bit,” a judge said in a Nassau County Supreme Court opinion.
That’s because the same firm earlier was ordered to pay another suspended ex-partner a contracted-for $1.2 million buyout, reports Reuters.
But just as in the earlier litigation brought by Glinkenhouse Floumanhaft & Queen over its first suspended-partner payout, to Selwyn Karp, the Long Island law firm is bound by its contractual agreement with the other ex-partner, Stephen Silver, ruled Justice Ira Warshawsky,
“Plaintiffs have failed to establish any of the traditional bases for the rescission of a contract,” he explained in his opinion. “The parties were all fully aware of the circumstances, and there is no contention that Silver in any way fraudulently induced plaintiffs to enter the contract.”
